Load board apps: the truck load apps we checked, and how to pick one

Two kinds of load board app

Search the app store for truck loads and you get two very different products with the same look. Both show a list of postings with an origin, a destination, a date and sometimes a rate. What sits behind the list is not the same.

An open load board app is the phone version of a load board. Thousands of brokers pay to post their loads there, and carriers search across all of them. You see a lot of freight, but every load is a separate negotiation with a separate broker, and checking that broker is your job. DAT One, Truckstop Go and Trucker Path work this way.

A broker or shipper app shows freight from one company. Amazon Relay shows Amazon's loads. J.B. Hunt Carrier 360 and C.H. Robinson's Navisphere Carrier show loads those brokers are covering. You usually get set up once, then book many loads with a tap, often at a posted price, and get paid by that one company. You see less freight, but there's less phone time per load.

Most carriers who book from a phone end up with one open board for reach and one or two broker apps for steady, quick bookings. Knowing which kind you're holding tells you what to expect from it.

How we checked these apps

We read each company's own website on October 11, 2026 and wrote down only what the company states there: whether carriers pay, the lowest paid plan if there is one, how booking works and anything stated about payment. We didn't install and test the apps, time their searches or rate them, and the order below is not a ranking. Where we couldn't read a company's page, the app is listed as not verified and kept out of the table.

Before the list, the criteria we'd use to judge any load board app on your own lanes:

• +Freight on your lanes. Count loads that fit your truck and your lanes over a normal week, not the national total on the homepage.
• +Rate visibility. Does the posting show a rate, and does the app show what the lane paid recently? Rate history is often a paid tier.
• +Broker data. Credit scores, days to pay and authority checks inside the app save calls. Without them, you check every broker yourself.
• +Booking. Can you book in the app, or does every load start with a phone call?
• +Payment terms. For broker apps, how fast they pay and what quick pay costs matter as much as the rate.
• +Cost against hours. A subscription is cheap next to the hours you spend searching. Count both.

The load board apps we checked

Each card below shows what the company's own site said on October 11, 2026. Plans and prices change, so recheck the page on the day you sign up.

• OPEN BOARD PAID CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  DAT One

  DAT says the DAT One mobile app is included in every subscription, on iPhone and Android. Carrier plans started at Standard, $59 a month, with Enhanced at $149 and Pro at $169. The plan sets how many search tabs you get and how deep the average spot rate data goes. The app shows broker days to pay, credit scores and reviews.

• OPEN BOARD PAID CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  Truckstop (Truckstop Go app)

  Truckstop says its Truckstop Go app lets carriers book loads from anywhere, on iPhone and Android. Board plans were Basic $42, Advanced $135 and Pro $159 per user a month, plus a $42 application fee credited to the first month if approved. Rate Insights and load alert notifications were listed in Pro.

• OPEN BOARD FREE CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  Trucker Path

  Trucker Path advertises a free AI enhanced load board and says carriers can search about 150,000 loads posted daily. The app is on iPhone and Android and is also known for parking, weigh station and truck stop information. Some app features sit behind a paid plan on a separate pricing page.

• OPEN BOARD FREE SEARCH CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  DOFT

  DOFT says carriers can search and view loads for free and that signing up is free. It mentions a subscription without listing tiers or prices on the page we read, and offers factoring as a separate service with its own fee.

• ONE SHIPPER FREE WITH CONDITIONS CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  Amazon Relay

  Amazon says Relay gives trucking companies free access to book spot loads and contracts. The freight is Amazon's own. Its stated requirements include interstate authority active for more than 180 days, a valid MC number, safety rating and BASIC score limits, and required insurance.

• ONE BROKER NO FEE LISTED CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  J.B. Hunt Carrier 360

  J.B. Hunt's carrier page lists load search with instant booking, noting that Book Now isn't available on all loads. It lists standard pay within 21 business days with no fee and quick pay typically received within 2 days. Documents, invoices and payment status are handled in the account.

• ONE BROKER FREE IF APPROVED CHECKED OCTOBER 11, 2026

  C.H. Robinson Navisphere Carrier

  C.H. Robinson says Navisphere Carrier is free for carriers approved to haul with it, on web and app. Carriers can book loads instantly or make offers, and send tracking updates. Cash advances on picked up loads carry a transaction fee and need a first load completed.

• NOT VERIFIED

  Others we couldn't confirm

  123Loadboard blocked our check of its site, and Uber Freight's carrier page didn't load for us on the check date, so neither is in the table. Convoy, once a well-known carrier app, stopped operating in 2023 and is not an option.

Everything in the cards and table comes from each company's own pages on October 11, 2026. None of these companies pays us, and we have no affiliation with any of them.

What a load board app is good at, and where it falls short

The phone is where loads get booked now. A posting goes up, and the carriers who see it first get the first calls in. An app with alerts tells you about a matching load while you're still at the dock, which beats searching at 9 p.m. when the good freight is gone. That speed is the whole case for a mobile load board.

The phone is also where mistakes happen. A small screen hides the details that matter: the empty miles to pickup, the appointment window, the commodity, whether the rate is all-in or before fuel. It's easy to tap book on a number that looks good and find out at the shipper that it wasn't.

• +Alerts beat searching. Set saved searches for your reload areas before you deliver, so the app comes to you.
• +Read the full posting before you call. Open the detail view every time. Weight, length, stops and pickup window change what a load is worth.
• +Never book on the loaded rate alone. Add the deadhead miles and work out the all-in rate per mile before you say yes.
• +Check the broker from the app if it can, and from FMCSA's public records if it can't. Match the phone number and email to the registration.
• +Search parked. Booking from the driver's seat while moving is how people get hurt and how trucks get fined.

Read the posting on a small screen

Here's how a posting can look in an app list view, and what's missing until you open it. This is an EXAMPLE with round numbers, not a real load.

The $3.00 in the list and the $2.57 your truck actually earns are the same load. Compare the lower number with your cost per mile. If you don't know that cost yet, the trucking cost per mile calculator works it out in a few minutes.

Free truck load apps against paid ones

A free app is a fine place to start, and for some carriers it's all they need. The difference with a paid board is usually not the search screen. It's the data around the posting: what the lane paid last week, how fast this broker pays, how many trucks are chasing the same freight. That's what helps you counter instead of just accepting.

Broker apps are free for a different reason. The broker or shipper makes money on the freight, so the app is how they find trucks. You'll often see a set price that's take it or leave it, which is simple, but you should still compare it with your floor and with what the same lane pays on the open board.

If you're weighing a paid plan, test it on your real lanes for a few weeks and count the loads that fit your truck and clear your floor. Then put the subscription and your hours side by side with a dispatch fee in the load board vs dispatcher cost comparison. For a wider look at the no-cost options, see our list of free load boards, checked on the same day.

Load board apps for new authorities

New carriers lean hard on apps, and the first months are where the two kinds differ most. Open boards let you see everything, but many brokers posting there won't set up a very new MC. Broker apps can be stricter still: Amazon Relay lists authority active for more than 180 days among its requirements, and the broker apps above only work once you're approved with that broker.

That doesn't make the apps useless while you're new. It means you'll hear more noes, you'll want your carrier packet ready to send in minutes, and you'll lean on brokers who do take new authorities. Our guide to load boards for new authority covers that stretch in detail.

Tracking, documents and payment inside the app

Many truck load apps now do more than find freight. Broker apps often ask you to share location or tap through check calls, and they're increasingly where you upload the signed bill of lading and see when you'll be paid. That saves a stack of emails, but read what you're agreeing to share, and know that location tracking in a broker app is usually a condition of the load. Our page on load tracking explains how tracking requests work and what brokers can see.

On open boards, the app finds the load, but the paperwork runs through the broker you book with. The rate confirmation comes from that broker, and payment terms are on it. Read every rate con before you sign it, whatever app the load came from.

One setup that works for most small carriers

If you're running one to a few trucks and booking yourself, a simple setup covers most weeks. One open board app gives you reach on every lane. One or two broker apps from companies that already pay you on time give you quick bookings without a negotiation each time. Saved searches with alerts on your two or three reload areas keep you from searching blind.

Then keep your own list. Which brokers paid on time, which postings were real, which lanes reloaded easily. After a month, that list tells you more than any app's homepage. It also tells you whether a paid plan earned its fee. The main load boards guide covers how postings work field by field if you want to go further.

Cite or share this list

If you quote this page, please cite it as: LoadHoller, "Load board apps," checked October 11, 2026. We recheck the apps at least once a year and when a reader tells us something has changed. Companies on this list can send corrections through our contact page; we'll check your own site and update the card.